Survey Data
Reg No
31312013
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Worker's house
In Use As
House
Date
1860 - 1865
Coordinates
115575, 253892
Date Recorded
13/12/2010
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay single-storey forester's house with half-dormer attic, built 1862; extant 1894, on an T-shaped plan centred on single-bay full-height "turret" breakfront on a square plan abutting single-bay full-height gabled projecting end bay; single-bay (north) or two-bay (south) full-height side elevations. Pitched slate roof on an T-shaped plan with hipped slate roof (breakfront), perforated crested clay ridge tiles, tuck pointed snecked rock faced chimney stacks having shallow capping, roundel-perforated timber bargeboards to gables on timber purlins, and cast-iron rainwater goods on exposed timber rafters retaining cast-iron downpipes. Tuck pointed snecked rock faced walls on lichen-spotted cut-limestone chamfered plinth with drag edged tooled hammered limestone flush quoins to corners. Square-headed central door opening in pointed-arch recess with tooled cut-limestone surround supporting rock faced limestone ashlar voussoirs framing replacement glazed uPVC panelled door having quatrefoil-perforated overpanel. Paired square-headed (ground floor) or square-headed (half-dormer attic) window openings with cut-limestone sills, and drag edged tooled hammered limestone block-and-start surrounds framing one-over-one timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): central hall retaining timber boarded doors. Set in landscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A house erected by Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness (1798-1868) of Ashford Castle (Semple 1988, 95) representing an integral component of the nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of the outskirts of Cong with the architectural value of the composition, one recalling the contemporary Ballykine House (1862), Ballykine Lower (see 31312014), confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a buttressed turret-like breakfront; the construction in a laurel green and puce fieldstone offset by "sparrow pecked" limestone dressings not only demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also producing an eye-catching polychromatic palette; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the decorative timber work embellishing the roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the restrained interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a house making a picturesque visual statement in a wooded setting overlooking Lough Corrib.